Sian Williams: Wales women have chance to make history in England

Sian Williams is writing a column for BBC Wales Sport throughout the 2016 Women's Six Nations

All the girls are bouncing with excitement. Saturday is an absolutely huge day.

If we beat England - in England - it would be historic. We have never beaten England away.

Our home win over England last year was something we really needed as a squad, to generate that belief.

If we get a win this weekend, then it is all to play for in the final week and it has not been like that for a fair few years in the Women's Six Nations.

It would be the best thing that could happen to us before our road to the World Cup in 2017.

Before the start of this championship, I was dreaming of two wins, which we needed to guarantee qualification for the World Cup.

Now we have qualified for that with wins over Scotland and France, the pressure is off in a sense on Saturday.

But we absolutely have to make sure we do not take our foot off the pedal.

As well as giving us that critical second win, our victory over France brought belief back, after a disappointing game against Ireland. We have shown what we are capable of.

But now it is a case of making sure we are consistent and we go out and perform exactly the same again against England on Saturday.

It would be just the boost we need, ready for the a key year next year. We have got a young squad so hopefully we can carry success forward.

And there is a patriotic side to this encounter. Welsh fans and Welsh people can be extremely patriotic towards the country and we are all desperate to win.

But playing my club rugby for an English club in Worcester, I see it on the other side too. The rivalry is exactly the same on both sides of the border.

Every international rugby team wants to win and that passion will be evident across all three England-Wales fixtures this weekend, with the men and the under-20s too.

Unfortunately, with the timings, we probably won't see any of the men's senior game at Twickenham, which starts at 16:00 GMT before our game at 18:05 GMT.

We have got to be fully focused on our own match.

But to start our game knowing Wales men had won at Twickenham would only be a huge morale boost.

I think the Welsh back row have got an edge on any back row in the world at the moment, so I have to back Wales men to earn a victory.

It is always nice to hear of the other squads winning. We all want there to be three Welsh wins this weekend.

And that would be key to inspiring the next generation.

Media coverage of our women's team is getting a lot better - we are a lot more "out there" this year.

And International Women's Day on Tuesday, plus Sport Wales' campaign to boost coverage of Welsh sportswomen is all helping.

Wrexham-born Sian Williams (left) is the first full-time female elite athlete in the RAF

For example, our final game against Italy on 20 March is going to be on S4C. For us, that is a big boost.

Hopefully it can create role models, if girls can watch our games on television. It is so crucial to inspire the next generation of women to go out and play.

And hopefully media coverage of Welsh women's sport will get even bigger.

There are already so many women that are successful in Wales, you have got ready-made role models already out there.

It's important that they are out there in the limelight.

So it really could be a great week for Welsh rugby as a whole.

But on the pitch we are in a better position that some of us thought we might be.

Before the start of the tournament, if you had asked us if we thought we would be in contention to win it, not many of us would have said yes.

If we can finish as high as possible this year and go in 2017 on a high, that is something we would not have expected.

Sian Williams was talking to BBC Wales Sport's Tom Garry.

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